Objectives: Intimate partner violence (IPV) can impact women’s decision making about contraception. Previous research has shown that IPV impacts women’s ability to use contraception and can result in unintended pregnancies, repeat abortions, and STIs. We examined whether experiencing more types of lifetime IPV was associated with choosing more effective contraceptive methods post-abortion.
Approach: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional study of 241 women who were attending an urban abortion hospital clinic. We assessed whether women experienced emotional, physical, or sexual violence at any point in their past, and categorized women’s contraceptive method selected post-abortion into highly effective (IUD and implant), moderately effective (pill, patch, ring, and shot), and low effective (condoms, EC, and none) methods. We used multinomial logistic regression to examine whether experiencing more types of IPV is associated with choosing more effective contraceptive methods post-abortion.
Findings: Compared to women with no histories of any IPV, women who experienced two or more types of lifetime IPV were more likely to choose contraceptive methods of moderate (RRR=11.99, 95% CI: 1.39-103.65) and high (RRR=11.57, 95% CI: 1.33-100.93) effectiveness levels.
Conclusions: Women who had experienced two or more types of IPV during their lifetimes selected more effective contraceptive methods post-abortion. These results suggest access to long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods is warranted and crucial.
Public Health Significance: These findings suggest further research is needed to better understand the effect of IPV on contraceptive use, including reproductive coercion, among women seeking abortion services.